


Sonin and Sonata: Ragnarök Hnefatafl

by Kringle Oliphas (HyperPowerfulForm64)



Category: No Fandom, Norse Religion & Lore, Original Work
Genre: Male-Female Friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 12:20:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,696
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20227741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HyperPowerfulForm64/pseuds/Kringle%20Oliphas
Summary: Sonin Powers and Sonata Phoebe make a curious discovery in Uncle Jed’s Seaside Emporium of Curiosities that ties into The Twosome's very destiny.





	Sonin and Sonata: Ragnarök Hnefatafl

**Author's Note:**

> Nota bene:
> 
> This is a Norse Mythology AU of this series I developed and write primarily for my own amusement. It was also my final for a Mythology Class I took in college, I got a 95 out of 100, which is very well, considering that this is very much a first(ish) draft, but recent conversations with my best and good friend-o-mine, Jordan (Twitter here: https://twitter.com/AncientLitDude) have lead me to believe that maybe it is time at last to share this, at least for now, though I hope to eventually put this, polished up, on a kindle or something.
> 
> But yeah, keep in mind it's little more than a first draft (though I did enjoy writing it, mark you), and that I am not entirely in love with the first paragraph or two, and finally that although I welcome constructive criticism (particularly in grammar and spotting run-on sentences, they’re not exactly my forte), it is first and foremost, a story I wrote for my own amusement, as such it might be boring, kinda or otherwise, to all but myself. 
> 
> Finally, the tone of this short story is inspired, in part, by Colors/Dance by George Winston, and is suggested reading music as I picture it being the (unofficial) soundtrack of this short story.
> 
> Without further ado, here it is:

Sonin and Sonata:  
Ragnarök Hnefatafl  
Or,  
Baldur's Game

Cast of Characters:

Sonin Powers: A ten-year-old boy of many quirks, only son of Jorel Carter and Jovanna Cantena Powers; an explorer and photographer duo, he (Sonin) is the best friend of Sonata.  
Sonata Phoebe: A ten-year-old girl of many quirks, only daughter of Melody and Maestro Phoebe; a songstress and a rural folk pianist duet who were best friends of the aforementioned parental duo since early childhood, she (Sonata) is the best friend of Sonin.  
Uncle Jed Powers: Sonin’s loving uncle (brother on the father’s side), and Sonata’s Godfather. 

Deep, deep in the scraggly tree-lined forests of The Ozark Hub, down and around a grey-paven road abandoned in mystery. A tap-tap-tapping resounded from the set of four feet in four brown sandals as a set of four legs attached to two bodies swung back-and-forth, but nevertheless forward, dressed in a pair of tan khaki shorts, a flowing dress, and two shades of red.

Also swinging in rough time with the footfall were two free hands and two interlocked ones which also swung.

These sets of twos and fours belonged to The Twosome: A boy named Sonin and a girl named Sonata, two best friends until the end of time.

Today, on this splendid 11 o’clock pre-afternoon, they were heading southwards in The Ozark Hub, which according to their crayon-and pencil sketch of their pastoral world, leads tally-ho into a particular beachside town of The Ozark Hub: Fort Desoto.

Roughly in the middle of the town, nestled betwixt a Shawarma Palace and Holly-Buster’s Video Store is Uncle Jed’s Seaside Emporium of Curiosities: A shop run by a mildly plump-bellied man who is both Sonin’s kindly uncle and Sonata’s loving Godfather. 

He has long since happily accepted part-time employment from The Twosome on days whenever they feel like lending a helping pair of hands, and in return, they have allowances considerably higher than most ten-year-olds, and more importantly, learn at an early age the responsibilities of money.

On this ordinary Wednesday morning, the little bells at the door jingle as a burgundy door is pulled, then held open by Sonin as Sonata steps in, shutting the door behind him afterward.

“Hiya Godfather!” Sonata greeted as she put around her neck her name-badge. 

“Hey Sonata, nice to see you come in.” said Jed, putting aside a watchmaker’s loupe. “Have a pencil behind your ear today?”

Sonata tapped behind first one ear, then the other, then turned out the pockets of her dark red skirt “Nope. Afraid not.”

“Ah well, here you go.” Jed added as he handed a no. 2 pencil and the sign-in board to Sonata. 

“Hiya Uncle!” Sonin greeted as well as he likewise put his own name-badge around his neck, clicking it into place just like Sonata’s.

“Hey Sonin, nice to see you come in as well.” his uncle said, “And I’ll take that.” He added as he was handed back the sign-in board and the no. 2 pencil.

At that moment, the black phone rang from his office, so holding out an index, he ran over to answer it.

“Helllllo, Uncle Jed’s Seaside Emporium of Curiosities; Where There’s Always Something To Discover Everyday: Uncle Jed speaking...”

Though sometimes Jed’s telephone conversations were fascinating to eavesdrop and decipher, ‘sometimes’ was indeed the keyword, and in this case it sadly didn’t seem to be, so it was swiftly tuned out by The Twosome’s four ears.

What never failed to be fascinating though, especially to a curious pair of kids like Sonin and Sonata, was what was up for sale hanging along the walls and ceiling, or scattered helter-skelter along the metal shelves and color-flecked linoleum floor; knickknack and doodads and general miscellania as far as their green eyes could see, and all the colors they could wish and dream.

But although everything was, in their own words, “Awesome! To quote the Lego Movie’s first and second part!”, not all was wonderful; several of what was trucked in or donated, or sometimes just wound up outside the door to be nearly tripped over when Jed opened shop for the day, was said to evoke the older, darker, more eldritch definition of “awesome” often overlooked by the day-by-dayer.

Indeed, it was many, many times Sonin and Sonata have had to face their fears and save the universe from the dark, vile and royal forces of King Chthonin and Queen Chthonata with the secret forces of the Power-Stones, running into lesser-friends and foes along the way. 

This was always reflected like the window display into the minds of the two of them as Sonin grabbed an old broom, Sonata grabbed a newer dustpan, and sweep golden sand, rich brown earth, pesky dust bunnies, and goodness knows what else off the floor, and after a time they switched.

But today was not one of those days, instead, today felt different, but in what way The Twosome struggled to put a finger on.

Jed’s phone call ran long, so The Twosome had a look around while they waited for the call to end, they were but children after all. 

Soon, they found nestled between a worn box of old vinyls and Betamax tapes and an older and a familiar, light brown bookcase filled with dusty and prismatic books The Twosome made a mental note to check back on later, was an ancient wooden box with a curious engraven title.

“Rag-nah-roo’k...Heh-neaf-ata...” Sonin trailed off, his tongue was twisted enough by the first word.

“Sonin, I think it's said...Oh my...Heh-heh, let’s go ask Jed.”

Jed squeezed between them “I am that Jed, back from my lengthy phone call, sorry kids, you wanna ask me something?”

“What does this box say, it doesn’t seem to be written in English.” Sonin said, handing said box to his uncle.

“Maybe its Quenya?” Sonata suggested.

“That’s because its written, carven, rather, in Icelandic. A rather old script by the looks of it.”

“I wasn’t too far off...”

“You weren’t, Sonata.” Sonin said, looking around and across Jed’s belly and smiling most kindly. 

To Jed, he enquired a translation.

“Well, my Icelandic’s a little rusty, but I know for sure that the first word there is said ‘Rag-nah-rock’, emphasis on the ‘K’ sound after the umlant at the end.” He said, underlining the first word with his right index finger.

“The umlaut?” Sonin enquired.

“A slightly more complex way to show a long vowel. "Jed answered. "You know, These Vowels have a problem, and Silent E’s to blame, Instead of A-E-I-O-U, he makes them say their name! That shebang.”

“Oh, cool.” 

“I believe Tolkien uses it.” Sonata said.

Jed tapped his nose and tickled the crook of Sonata’s elbow with the same index finger.

“What’s inside?” Sonin said.

“That...Will have to wait until after your shift, you two. I could use some additional hands in the back.”

The three stepped behind the counter and made for the small Loading Area, pushing past the rainbow bead curtains.

“The rambly old coot who just called is going to pull up any minute with some things in the back of her van.” Jed explained. “Didn’t specify other than saying it was Magical Things, ‘Sounds right up my alley’ I told her, ‘Well, good. Be right there after I finish fueling up at the QuikTrip, it's more than a gas station you know.’ she said, then hung up.”

Sonata promptly stumbled over an umbrella Jed was meaning to move and heard a plastic clanking, but before she could tell him or Sonin, the client arrived, honking an odd sort of greeting-signal.

Needless to say, the box never left the thoughts of The Twosome throughout their three-hour shift, but they almost forgot about it entirely when “the coot” pulled up in a covered black pickup that said “Brontë’s Construction, Hammering Our Specialty”.

For one thing, in spite of her age, she was a tall older women who towered many heads over even Jed. 

For another, she identified herself G. Rid, which Twosome couldn’t help but joke when they were working later that it meant Get Rid (Of My Magic Crap), but it was a joke in good spirit, one that even Jed found mildly funny.

For still another, the only things she wanted to part with was three items among a dozen or so felines that took up the rear: a worm-eaten old staff, a pair of mittens that she said belonged to her old flame, and a long length of tan string.

“Old flame?” Sonata said, who'd never heard that term before, and Jed said, who was expecting many boxes of this and that, simultaneously.

“Oh, yes.” G. Rid said, nodding “If you’d believe it, I was a feisty Mistress in a previous time and previous place, as you will, Sonata-Child, someday.”

Uncle Jed, who read his E. R. Eddison, knew what the secondary, more sexually-charged meaning of Mistress meant that was otherwise unbeknownst to Sonin and Sonata (who just assumed it was just "a Sonata" of Master, as they used in a previous caper of theirs), and couldn’t help but give G. Rid a distrusting glance under his eyebrows, even if Jed himself admitted to dropping the occasional double entendre around his brother and sister-in-law in the company of the kids.

Still and all, he thanked the woman as Sonata stuffed a black trash bag full of the three queer objects, and bid G. Rid sayonara. 

"Bless!" She called to the three, looking at them through the driver-side side-mirror in an Icelandic tongue, then drove off and away.

On their way back, Sonin found a certain rectangular something in the backroom.

"Hey, Sonata! Looks like you dropped your name-badge. Here ya go."

"Thanks, Sonin." She said, plucking it back.

As the approached the doorway to the sales floor, The Twosome suddenly froze dead in their tracks, looking at each other as they ran back what G. Rid said in their heads many times over.

After a moment or two of thought, Sonin put forth his hypothesis "Surely, that must have been just a coinkydink?"

"That's nearly impossible, Sonin. It can't be! Nothing about myself, besides the nametag, could suggest my name to her."

At this, Sonin put forth a second hypothesis “Well, Your name is based on Donata, maybe she misspoke? It's a common name.”

Sonata gave him a look like he suggested the moon really was, in fact, made of cheese after all.

“...Sorta common.” He said at length.

The jingle of the set of Entrance Bells and Jed unrudely calling their names broke them out of their thoughts and into a dash back onto the sales floor, but they kept their minds one-third on that mystery, with the other thirds taken up by the first mystery of the day and, of course, their job.

Three hours of keeping the floor swept, zoning the display, and jovially interacting with the customers (or “visitants” as Jed liked to call them) later, the subject of the box came back during sign-out, which today just so coincided with an unexpected bank visit for Jed. 

“Oh, Frigga’s Spinning Wheel!” He strongly swore upon opening the cash register “Looks like I need to go down and get a couple of Ulysses and Franklins! At least we’re at a downtime. You kids want to tag along for a bit before you head home?”

“Sure. Godfather, could we bring the box?” Sonata said, already pulling it out from an alcove behind the counter.

Jed took the box and stared at it long and hard. For several minutes he just stood there, box in his hands, fiddling it around, even opening it just wide enough for him to look inside before shutting it back up.

“As long as if you find any apparitions inside that you tell me this time. It looks to be just a board game of some sort. But I can’t be sure if any of the pieces won’t fly up and gorge one of you guys’ eye-sockets, or have a hexed instruction booklet, or have a blackhole for a space, or-”

“We get it, Jed.” Sonin said, firmly but not quite rudely so. “Me, Sonata, or both me and Sonata, will come to you at the very first hint of the uncanny.”

“Sonin Powers, Sonata Phoebe, I’m trusting you to do so.” the Godfatherly Uncle said in a likewise firm solemnity, putting it in his nephew’s arms. 

“We won’t break that trust.” Sonata said “We promise.”

“I trust you to keep that, too.” Jed said, then his mood and face brightened as he put out the “back in a half-hour” sign on the door and stepped outside, Sonata followed and held open the door for Sonin to return the favor from three hours ago, the three locks went *CLICK!* then *CLOCK!* then finally *CLOOK!*, and the three of them set out in the afternoon sun.

***

The bank wasn’t very far from Uncle Jed’s Seaside Emporium of Curiosities, but it was still several blocks all the same. Not that it gave Jed and his nephew and God-niece too much of a hassle, they quite enjoyed downtown Fort Desoto, especially at around this time.

As they walked, the three of them talked, and though it started rather general, the topic was soon ripped from Jed’s dictation and shifted primarily to the board game at (Sonin’s, then a while later, Sonata’s) hand (or hands, rather). 

“So you said that it was a board game? What did it look like?” Sonin said, quite excited as to what the rules might be, and not wanting to lose a piece, as well as hoping that the pieces were all there, in a strange blizzard of thoughts.

“And would you say that the other word translates to Board Game?” Sonata said as she pressed the “Cross” button to cross the street intersecting at Vidar’s Sandals Shoppe and the Mona Lisas & Mad Hatters Gallery, she was equally as excited as her best friend.

Jed shrugged “I mean, it's been awhile since I read anything in that language, but it probably is. Ragnarök means either ‘Fate’ or ‘Twilight’--Forgot quite which--’Of the Gods’ if my memory serves me well.”

Sonata suddenly looked deeply concerned as they crossed the street.

"What's wrong, Sonata? Have to pee?" Sonin said, chuckling at his own potty humor.

"No, I went before we left...It's just that, well, how do I put this?" For some reason, the right words weren't coming to the young girl.

"I'm not sure if I...Want to play a game all about such a blood-soaked war. It was the end of the world for so many Deities and Frost Giants and Men and Women and goodness knows who else."

"But what about other board games like Chess, or Checkers, or Valley of the Pharaohs. Or how about video games, like Diddy's Kong-Quest, or Super Mario 64, Or Herc's Adventures? We can't get enough of those games!"

Tears were beginning to roll down Sonata's cheeks, curving slightly at her cheekbones’ gentle concavity.

"That may be true, Sonin, but I...I think there's a world of difference when it comes to those silly, simple games and a huge, bloody game that is based on events that really happened!"

She was sobbing now, so much so that Sonin had to clutch the hand, the one she was wasn't clutching at her chest and wiping at her bitter tears with, in order to guide her safety with her glasslike tear-veil. 

"Sonata, Valley of the Pharaohs is not silly, nor simple. It's a freaking Indiana Jones movie in boardgame-form!" 

"You're missing the point, Sonin! You’re missing the whole point! There was so much Chaos and Death and Bloodbath for all!" She went on, causing some passerby to look at her askance.

Sonin paid them no notice, even Jed looked back at her, not out of anger, but pity.

The kind-hearted boy helped his best friend to a seat in front of the Café Hippopotame C’est Mentholé, that was closed for the day.

"But Sonata, that's just it, it wasn't all." He said, pulling out a red bandana with it's peculiar flowery and peppery pattern from out of his jeans pocket and handed it to her. "Of all the Frost Giants and Deities to fall in that war, many remained, and do you remember who they were? Children! Like us. Do you remember what we learned in Sunday School? Even the Children of the Sun and Moon took the duties of their parents, bravely!"

"Not unlike you're doing right now, Sonin." Uncle Jed thought privately to himself as he sat in a chair adjacent to them and resting an arm on another chair, beaming with pride.

"In fact," Sonin went on "why don't we open up the game right this minute? What'd'ya say?"

Sonata smiled at last. "Sure! We could be looking at a game as complexly glorious as Valley of the Pharaohs for all we know."

As it turned out that fine evening, it was, but not at first.

Coughing thrice as he gingerly opened the wooden box and pulled out the gameboard, turning it over as she did, the first thing that stood out to The Twosome was that it was a finely crisscross carven board of nine-by-nine squares, with splendid swirls along the sides.

The second thing that stood out The Twosome was a set of nine and sixteen gorgeously gold-carven markers that glistered in the evening sunlight and took the form of various famous figures of the Pantheon of the Norse Legends of Yesteraeon.

But the third thing, the one that stood out the most of all to The Twosome was that, upon being held in Sonin or Sonata's hands, the figure spoke! 

Obviously quite startled, Sonata dropped the figure of Baldur, but the figure did not break, nor did Baldur seem all that angry, the son of the deities of wisdom and motherhood had very little temper, or so it seemed.

Although he spoke in Old Norse tongue, The Twosome somehow understood him, and he likewise understood English.

Long after they bid Jed a goodbye halfway distracted and halfway in the language of their ancestors, as that how Baldur explained Icelandic, The Twosome remained in their metal, cushioned seats as the Baldur figure and all the others spun an intertwined yarn of the many adventures the deities that they were carven in close likeness. 

The Twosome's four parents did not object, for Sonin's were somewhere in the Australian Outback, and Sonata's were on tour in cities of the likes of Sydney, at the moment.

As for Uncle Jed? He already knew that the stories would be made more suitable, but no less inspiring, for the children anyway.

And as for the scarier bits? "Eh," Jed privately shrugged it off "As the Great Gonzo would say: This is culture."

This all happened over the course of but three days, which The Twosome found out to their delight that they were all christened names of the deities: [W]Odin's Day (Wednesday), Thor's Day (Thursday) and Frigg's Day (Friday).

In this and several other secret ways, The Twosome found that the deities were indeed not forgotten after Ragnarök.

***

On a Frigg's Day summer evening as good as you could ask, after spitting out the seeds of a Watermelon, (Okahoma's State Fruit, as Jed pointed out as he cut the melon) on the pavilion's wood steps, the golden Baldur-figure brought the whole epic cycle to it's sweeping, frozen-bloodsoaked, and eucatastrophic end.

As a sticky round of applause resounded, Sonin enquired about the rules of the game proper, which they finally found out was pronounced Neffel (as in the Eiffel Tower of the French)-taffle (which amusingly almost-rhymes with 'Waffle')-ah, whereas Sonata wished to hear the Nordic Cycle all over again.

After some debate betwixt the gold figures, both suggestions were chosen, Sonin's first, then Sonata's.

But as they wrapped up Sonin's request, the boy caught a wavering glint of hesitancy retained in Sonata's eyes from earlier as he excitedly expressed that he wanted to play the game right away.

“But Sonata, I genuinely feel like we’re destined to play this game, and I mean it! Remember Lif and Lifthrasir? Life and Life’s Longing, the man and woman who escaped Ragnarök and then repopulated the newly-formed Green World of Ours? The two of us are very much like them in very many ways.” Sonin said, all twenty-five little golden heads of the figures nodding in accordance and agreement.

That didn’t occur to Sonata, and her hesitancy swiftly faded as Sonin spilled his rhetorical argument onto her, and by the end of the Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, one after the other, a smile crossed her face.

“You’re right. ‘Tis a simple game anyways, not unlike chess or checkers. Godfather, could you get me and Sonin a bottle-draught of the finest A&W Root Beer-Mead? We’re going to be awhile longer.”

“As you wish.” Uncle Jed said, sounding a lot like The Grandfather from The Princess Bride, but whether or not he was quoting the movie, or else it was but a strange coincidence, as what seemed to populate the Slowly-Turning World that Sonin and Sonata happily explored and dwelled within, they could not tell for sure.

Forsooth, as Uncle Jed made his jolly way with the bowl of watermelon rinds and caught-by-chance tiny black seeds into the kitchen of Sonata’s house to fetch a trio of frosty root beers for himself and his nephew and God-niece, the shared backyard was the open air was filled by ten-million fireflies.

Under the persimmon and pink starry sky that shone off the pieces of a wooden board game carefully set on an old ping-pong table, in the soft umbra of a white-painted pavilion, seated on two light-brown metal chairs, a boy named Sonin, and a girl named Sonata; Descendants Of Life and Life's Longing, are retelling and reenacting a grand epic cycle with figures they found in an old Curiosity-Shop.

It is here our story comes to a close, as they both embrace old stories in the midst of new ones that are being told with themselves.

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, Café Hippopotame C’est Mentholé is a Master of Disguise reference, I love that movie, and I spent more time than I’d care to admit looking up how to translate "Minty Hippo" into french in a way that sounds accurate, or at any rate accurate to this neonatal layman of language. In the end, I decided to call it Cafe Hippopotamus That Is Mentholated instead. As they say in the UAE, same-same.


End file.
